Abstract

Over the last decade many emerging Asian economies have been liberalizing their financial sectors, including opening up of their banking systems to foreign competition. This paper examines the extent of de jure and de facto policies in Asia with regard to the introduction of greater foreign competition. To preview the main conclusion, while there has clearly been greater international financial liberalization in the region, Asia lags behind emerging Europe and Latin America when it comes to the relative significance of foreign banks in their respective domestic economies. The paper goes on to discuss possible reasons behind Asia’s relatively cautious approach towards this policy.